All 50 states were read on 23 September 2026 off each agency's own fee pages, and every price on this page links back to the table it came from. Fees are set by statute or by a commission and change between seasons, so the agency link beside each figure is what governs on the day.

Hunting License Cost by State, Plus the Tag on Top

Q: How much does a hunting license cost?

A resident licence runs from $10 to $64.54 across the 50 states read here, with the middle of the range near $25. That figure is the first of two purchases in 39 of them: the licence buys the right to hunt and a tag buys the animal, priced and sold separately. Every price on this page came off the issuing agency's own fee table.

Q: Why is the license price not what the season costs?

Because a tag is a second purchase. 39 of the 50 states read here sell the deer tag apart from the licence, so the number a search result shows is the smaller half of the transaction. The table on this page prints the licence, the first deer tag, and the two added together, which is the figure a first day actually costs.

Q: Do you need hunter education to buy a license?

Every one of the 50 states read here require it, and 29 of those hang the requirement on a birth date rather than an age. The cutoff years run from 1949 to 1986, a spread of 37 years, so the same birthday clears the requirement in one state and does not in its neighbour. 39 of the 50 states also issue an apprentice or mentored licence, which is a different document with its own conditions.

Q: What is the difference between a license and a tag?

The licence is permission to hunt. A tag or permit is attached to one animal of one species, usually in one unit, and it is bought or drawn separately. 448 tags and permits were read across these states, and the ones allocated by draw close months before the season opens rather than being sold on the way to the woods.

39 of 50

States where the licence is not the whole purchase

11 print the tags on the licence instead

+95%

What the tags add to a first morning

the middle state of the 38 that charge separately

37

Years between the oldest and newest hunter education cutoff

1949 in one state, 1986 in another

834

Prices read off agency fee tables

386 licences and 448 tags, every one linked

The finding

The licence price is the first line on the receipt, and in 39 states it is the smaller line

Search for what a hunting licence costs in your state and you will get one number. In 39 of the 50 states read here, that number does not buy a morning in the woods. It buys the right to then buy a deer tag, a turkey permit, a bear tag, a habitat stamp, or some combination of them, and the fee table prints those on a separate row further down the page.

New Mexico is the clearest case in the country. Its Game-Hunting License is $25 and covers small game. A resident who wants a deer adds the deer licence, a habitat validation and, on federal ground, a habitat stamp, and the first morning comes to $78. That is more than three times the price a search result shows.

Across the states that charge separately, the middle one adds 95% to the licence price before a hunter has left the driveway. That is the number worth carrying out of this page, because it is the one that changes what a budget looks like.

39 sell tags separately11 include them

11 states are built the other way and print the tags on the licence itself: Alabama, Arkansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont and West Virginia. In those, the price on the fee page is the price of the hunt, which is worth knowing before comparing it against a neighbour’s.

A brown wooden state agency sign standing in bare late season woods, reading SGL 013, STATE GAME LANDS, PUBLIC HUNTING, PENNSYLVANIA GAME COMMISSION, and beneath it 49528 ACRES, with a small yellow notice nailed to a pine at the right — The agency posts the ground, sets the seasons and prints the fee table, and everything on these pages comes off that last document. Fifty agencies were read on one day, and no two of them price a first morning the same way. “Pennsylvania State Game Lands Number 13 sign”, Jakec, CC BY-SA 4.0

Licence, first tag, and the two added together

What a resident actually pays for the first morning, dearest first

The last column is the point of the table. It is the percentage the tags add to the licence price, and it is the gap between what a state looks like and what a state costs. A state can print a cheap licence and a dear tag and end up dearer than the state next door that prints the opposite.

Resident annual licences across these 50 states run from $10 to $64.54. Nonresident annual licences run from $50 to $410, which is the widest spread of any licence this site has read, and it is before a single tag is added.

Resident licence, the first deer tag on top of it, and the two added together. A state that prints the tags on the licence shows nothing added, because nothing is.
State	Resident licence	First deer tag	First morning	Added on top
California	$64.54	$42.38	$106.92	66%
Arizona	$37	$58	$95	157%
Utah	$40.00	$46.00	$86	115%
New Mexico	$25	$53	$78	212%
Oklahoma	$36	$36	$72	100%
Oregon	$39.00	$33.00	$72	85%
Iowa	$35.00	$33.00	$68	94%
Nevada	$38.00	$30.00	$68	79%
Tennessee	$33.00	$33	$66	100%
Kentucky	$28.54	$37.00	$65.54	130%
Kansas	$25.00	$40.00	$65	160%
Washington	$55.13	$61.70	$61.70	12%
Delaware	$39.50	$20.00	$59.50	51%
New Jersey	$27.50	$28	$55.50	102%
North Dakota	$20	$35	$55	175%
Colorado	$38.49	$51.25	$51.25	33%
Ohio	$19.00	$31.20	$50.20	164%
North Carolina	$32	$18	$50	56%
Virginia	$23.00	$23.00	$46	100%
Maryland	$35	$10	$45	29%
South Dakota	$36*	$45	$45	25%
Nebraska	$20	$42	$42	110%
Wyoming	$27.00	$42.00	$42	56%
Idaho	$15.75	$24.75	$40.50	157%
Georgia	$15	$25	$40	167%
Massachusetts	$40.00	On the licence	$40	Nothing
Indiana	$20	$39	$39	95%
Connecticut	$19.00	$19.00	$38	100%
Rhode Island	$24.00	$14.00	$38	58%
Illinois	$12.00	$25.00	$37	208%
Louisiana	$20	$15	$35	75%
Alabama	$34.35	On the licence	$34.35	Nothing
Minnesota	$22	$34	$34	55%
New Hampshire	$32.00	On the licence	$32	Nothing
Michigan	$11	$20	$31	182%
Hawaii	$20.00	$10	$30	50%
Vermont	$28.00	On the licence	$28	Nothing
Maine	$26.00	On the licence	$26	Nothing
Montana	$10.00	$16.00	$26	160%
Mississippi	$25.00	On the licence	$25	Nothing
Texas	$25	On the licence	$25	Nothing
Wisconsin	$18	$24	$24	33%
Florida	$17.00	$5.00	$22	29%
New York	$22	On the licence	$22	Nothing
Pennsylvania	$20.97	On the licence	$20.97	Nothing

When it stops working

25 states run a licence year of their own, not the calendar

Hunting does not run on the calendar the way fishing does. Of the 50 states read here, 25 set their own start and end dates for a licence year, and those dates are usually pinned to the season rather than to January: 1 April, 1 July, 1 September, the Saturday before a season opens. The year turns on a date the state picked, usually in the spring or early autumn, so what a licence is worth depends on where in that year it was bought.

9 states kill the licence on 31 December whatever month it was bought in, which makes a November purchase an expensive one: Alaska, Connecticut, Idaho, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Vermont and West Virginia. At the other end, 9 states run a licence a full year or 365 days from the day it was bought, so every buyer gets the same amount of time for the same money.

2 agencies price every licence they sell without printing a sentence beside them saying when one stops working: Florida and Maine. Those are recorded here as publishing none, rather than filled in with the commonest answer.

What each state's own licence page says a licence runs on, in order from the calendar year states through to the ones that run a year from purchase.
State	What the licence runs on	Starts	Ends
Alaska	Calendar year	date of purchase	December 31st
Connecticut	Calendar year	January 1	December 31
Idaho	Calendar year	the date of purchase	December 31 of the year in which it was obtained
Massachusetts	Calendar year	January 1	December 31
Nebraska	Calendar year	Not printed	Dec. 31
New Hampshire	Calendar year	Not printed	December 31st
New Jersey	Calendar year	Not printed	Dec. 31
Vermont	Calendar year	January 1 of the calendar year for which they are issued or from the day of purchase and issue in that year	December 31 of the year for which they were issued
West Virginia	Calendar year	the beginning of each year	the end of the calendar year
Alabama	Licence year	Not printed	August 31
Arkansas	Licence year	July 1	June 30
California	Licence year	July 1	June 30
Colorado	Licence year	March 1	March 31 of the following year
Delaware	Licence year	July 1	June 30
Hawaii	Licence year	date of purchase	June 30
Illinois	Licence year	1 March	31 March of the following year
Indiana	Licence year	April 1	March 31
Iowa	Licence year	Jan. 1	January 10
Kentucky	Licence year	the beginning of March	the end of February
Maryland	Licence year	August 1	July 31
Michigan	Licence year	Not printed	March 31, 2027
Minnesota	Licence year	March 1	the end of February
Missouri	Licence year	March 1	the last day of February
Montana	Licence year	March 1	Feb. 28 of the following year
New Mexico	Licence year	April 1	March 31
New York	Licence year	September 1	August 31
North Dakota	Licence year	April 1	March 31
Ohio	Licence year	March 1	the last day of February
Pennsylvania	Licence year	July 1st	June 30th
Rhode Island	Licence year	March 1	the last day of February
South Dakota	Licence year	Dec. 15	Jan. 31
Texas	Licence year	Licenses go on sale August 15	August 31
Washington	Licence year	April 1	March 31
Wisconsin	Licence year	April 1	March 31
Oklahoma	Mixed	Not printed	Not printed
Oregon	Mixed	Jan. 1	Dec. 31
South Carolina	Mixed	date of purchase	one year or three years from date of purchase, but June 30 for annual tags and permits
Virginia	Mixed	date of purchase	one year later, except bear, deer and turkey and the waterfowl stamp which end June 30
Wyoming	Mixed	Not printed	the last day of the calendar year in which issued
Arizona	365 days	the date of purchase	365 days from the date of purchase
Georgia	365 days	date of purchase	365 days after date of purchase
Kansas	365 days	Not printed	Not printed
Louisiana	365 days	the date of purchase	one year (365 days) from the date of purchase
Mississippi	365 days	the license start date chosen at purchase	one year from that start date
Nevada	365 days	the date of purchase	1 year beginning the date of purchase
North Carolina	365 days	the date of purchase	12 months from the date of purchase
Tennessee	365 days	the date of purchase	365 days after purchase
Utah	365 days	the date of purchase	365 days from the date of purchase
Florida	Not published	Not printed	Not printed
Maine	Not published	Not printed	Not printed

The birth year nobody expects

29 states gate a first licence on a birth year, and the years are 37 apart

Hunter education is the requirement most first time buyers find out about at the counter. 29 of the 50 states read here will not sell a first licence to anyone born on or after a particular date without a certification card, and the date is not the same date twice. The earliest is 1949 and the latest is 1986.

That spread is 37 years wide, which means a forty year old who has never hunted can walk into one state and buy a licence over the counter, and needs a course before they can buy one across the river. The year is a fact about when a state passed its law, not about the hunter, and it is why the answer to “do I need hunter ed” is always a state question.

39 states sell some form of supervised apprentice or mentored licence, which lets somebody hunt beside a licensed adult before taking the course. It is the route most agencies point a curious first timer at, and the conditions attached to it are on each state’s own page below.

19491986

Each mark is one state, placed at the birth year its own agency prints. The states at the left end ask the course of almost everyone buying a licence today. The states at the right end still let a large part of the adult population buy one without it.

The birth year each state prints, oldest first. A state at the top asks the course of almost everyone buying a licence today.
State	Course required of anyone born on or after	Route for a first timer without it
Colorado	1949	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Kansas	1957	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Michigan	1960	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Nevada	1960	Not stated
Georgia	1961	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
North Dakota	1961	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Utah	1965	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Wyoming	1966	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Delaware	1967	Not stated
Missouri	1967	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Arkansas	1968	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Louisiana	1969	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Tennessee	1969	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Texas	1971	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Iowa	1972	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Mississippi	1972	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Washington	1972	The course, first
Wisconsin	1973	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Florida	1975	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Idaho	1975	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Kentucky	1975	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
West Virginia	1975	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Alabama	1977	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Minnesota	1979	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
South Carolina	1979	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Illinois	1980	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Montana	1985	A supervised apprentice licence is sold
Alaska	1986	Not stated
Indiana	1986	A supervised apprentice licence is sold

A wild turkey standing in tall yellow grass in light rain, head and neck sharp against a soft green background, wet feathers on its breast — Turkey is the second tag most of these agencies sell, and it is where the states part company. Some print a spring turkey permit as a separate line with its own price. A few fold it into the general licence and sell no turkey tag at all, which is why a state can look dear on the licence and come out cheaper on the morning. “Wild Turkey (38176700876)”, USFWS Headquarters, Public Domain

Where a tag is applied for, not bought

35 states put at least one species behind a draw

In 35 of these states, a licence does not put a hunter in the field for every species. Elk, moose, antelope, bighorn sheep and in several western states much of the deer hunting are allocated by lottery, applied for months ahead against a deadline that has usually passed by the time anyone is thinking about the season.

This is the part of a licence purchase that is a calendar problem rather than a money problem. The licence can be bought on the way to the woods. The tag, in much of the west, could not.

Species each state allocates by draw, and what it still sells over the counter, from the states that draw for the most down.
State	Drawn for	Sold over the counter
Nevada	Antelope, Bear, Deer, Elk, Moose, Turkey	Other
North Dakota	Antelope, Deer, Elk, Moose, Other, Turkey	Deer, Furbearer, Other, Small game, Waterfowl
Arizona	Antelope, Deer, Elk, Other, Turkey	Bear, Deer, Elk, Turkey, Waterfowl
New Mexico	Antelope, Deer, Elk, Other	Bear, Deer, Other, Turkey, Waterfowl
South Dakota	Antelope, Deer, Turkey, Waterfowl	Furbearer, Other, Small game, Waterfowl
Utah	Antelope, Deer, Moose, Other	Bear, Elk, Turkey
California	Antelope, Elk, Other	Bear, Deer, Other, Turkey, Waterfowl
Kansas	Deer, Elk, Turkey	Antelope, Deer, Turkey, Waterfowl
Minnesota	Bear, Elk, Other	Bear, Deer, Furbearer, Small game, Turkey, Waterfowl
Montana	Antelope, Deer, Moose	Bear, Deer, Elk, Small game, Turkey, Waterfowl
Colorado	Moose, Other	Antelope, Bear, Deer, Elk, Other, Turkey
Hawaii	Deer, Other	Other, Small game, Turkey
Idaho	Antelope, Moose	Bear, Deer, Elk, Other, Turkey, Waterfowl
Iowa	Deer, Turkey	Deer, Furbearer, Other, Turkey, Waterfowl
Missouri	Bear, Elk	Deer, Furbearer, Other, Turkey, Waterfowl
Oregon	Antelope, Other	Bear, Deer, Elk, Other, Small game, Turkey, Waterfowl
Washington	Moose, Other	Bear, Deer, Elk, Other, Small game, Turkey, Waterfowl
Wisconsin	Bear, Elk	Deer, Furbearer, Small game, Turkey, Waterfowl
Wyoming	Antelope, Moose	Bear, Deer, Elk, Other, Small game, Turkey
Alaska	Other	Bear, Deer, Elk, Furbearer, Moose, Other, Waterfowl
Arkansas	Elk	Bear, Elk, Other, Turkey, Waterfowl
Connecticut	Deer	Deer, Turkey, Waterfowl
Delaware	Other	Deer, Furbearer, Waterfowl
Florida	Bear	Deer, Furbearer, Other, Turkey, Waterfowl
Illinois	Furbearer	Deer, Other, Turkey, Waterfowl
Kentucky	Elk	Bear, Deer, Furbearer, Turkey, Waterfowl
Louisiana	Bear	Deer, Other, Turkey, Waterfowl
Maine	Moose	Bear, Deer, Other, Small game, Turkey, Waterfowl
Maryland	Bear	Deer, Furbearer, Waterfowl
Massachusetts	Deer	Bear, Deer, Other, Small game, Turkey, Waterfowl
Michigan	Bear	Deer, Small game, Turkey, Waterfowl
Nebraska	Elk	Antelope, Deer, Small game, Turkey, Waterfowl
New York	Deer	Other, Turkey, Waterfowl
Pennsylvania	Elk	Bear, Deer, Furbearer, Small game, Waterfowl
Virginia	Elk	Bear, Deer, Other, Turkey, Waterfowl

The stack on a duck morning

Waterfowl is where the second purchase turns into a fourth

A duck morning is the clearest illustration of what these pages are about. The state licence is the first line. On top of it sit a state waterfowl stamp in most states, the federal migratory bird hunting and conservation stamp that every waterfowl hunter over sixteen must carry, and a harvest information programme registration that is usually free but is separately required. None of those is included in the number a search result shows.

The federal stamp is the one that catches people, because it is not sold by the state agency at all and it does not appear on a state fee table as a product the state sells. Each state page below lists the stamps and validations that state prints, at the prices that state prints them.

A wide shallow wetland on a clear November morning, ducks scattered across the open water, a cottonwood in yellow leaf on a small island beside a low wooden viewing deck, and a flat brown horizon under a pale blue sky — Waterfowl is the clearest case of what these pages are about. The state licence is the first line on the receipt, and a duck morning adds a state stamp, a federal stamp and a harvest survey registration on top of it, none of which the licence price includes. “Llano Seco Unit (2024)-L1006548”, Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0

Hunting license questions

How much does a hunting license cost?

Why is the license price not what the season costs?

When do hunting licenses expire?

9 of the 50 states read here run the licence to 31 December whatever month it was bought in, 9 run it a full year from the day of sale, and the rest run a licence year with its own start and end dates. The price is the same in every one of them, so the same money buys very different amounts of time. 2 of the 50 states print the fee without a sentence saying when it stops working, and those are named on this page.

Do you need hunter education to buy a license?

What is the difference between a license and a tag?

Which states make you apply for a tag in advance?

35 of the 50 states read here allocate at least one species by draw: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Elk, moose and antelope are the species most often handled that way, and in a draw state the licence is bought long before it is used.

How current is this?

Where each state sells its licences

The agency that issues the licence in each state, and the counter it sells from.
State	Agency	Where it is bought
Alabama	Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries	The agency licence counter
Alaska	Alaska Department of Fish and Game	The agency licence counter
Arizona	Arizona Game and Fish Department	The agency licence counter
Arkansas	Arkansas Game and Fish Commission	The agency licence counter
California	California Department of Fish and Wildlife	The agency licence counter
Colorado	Colorado Parks and Wildlife	The agency licence counter
Connecticut	Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Wildlife Division	The agency licence counter
Delaware	DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife	The agency licence counter
Florida	Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission	The agency licence counter
Georgia	Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division	The agency licence counter
Hawaii	Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife	The agency licence counter
Idaho	Idaho Department of Fish and Game	The agency licence counter
Illinois	Illinois Department of Natural Resources	The agency licence counter
Indiana	Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Fish & Wildlife	The agency licence counter
Iowa	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	The agency licence counter
Kansas	Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks	The agency licence counter
Kentucky	Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources	The agency licence counter
Louisiana	Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries	The agency licence counter
Maine	Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife	The agency licence counter
Maryland	Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service	The agency licence counter
Massachusetts	Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife)	The agency licence counter
Michigan	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	The agency licence counter
Minnesota	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	The agency licence counter
Mississippi	Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks	The agency licence counter
Missouri	Missouri Department of Conservation	The agency licence counter
Montana	Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks	The agency licence counter
Nebraska	Nebraska Game and Parks Commission	The agency licence counter
Nevada	Nevada Department of Wildlife	The agency licence counter
New Hampshire	New Hampshire Fish and Game Department	The agency licence counter
New Jersey	New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Fish & Wildlife	The agency licence counter
New Mexico	New Mexico Department of Wildlife	The agency licence counter
New York	New York State Department of Environmental Conservation	The agency licence counter
North Carolina	North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission	The agency licence counter
North Dakota	North Dakota Game and Fish Department	The agency licence counter
Ohio	Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife	The agency licence counter
Oklahoma	Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation	The agency licence counter
Oregon	Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife	The agency licence counter
Pennsylvania	Pennsylvania Game Commission	The agency licence counter
Rhode Island	Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, Division of Fish and Wildlife	The agency licence counter
South Carolina	South Carolina Department of Natural Resources	The agency licence counter
South Dakota	South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks	The agency licence counter
Tennessee	Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency	The agency licence counter
Texas	Texas Parks and Wildlife Department	The agency licence counter
Utah	Utah Division of Wildlife Resources	The agency licence counter
Vermont	Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department	The agency licence counter
Virginia	Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources	The agency licence counter
Washington	Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife	The agency licence counter
West Virginia	West Virginia Division of Natural Resources	The agency licence counter
Wisconsin	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	The agency licence counter
Wyoming	Wyoming Game and Fish Department	The agency licence counter

Hunting licenses in every state

Fishing license costs by stateThe same agency, the other licence, and an expiry rule that works differently again.Tick activity by stateWhat the woods are doing this week, measured against the years behind it.First snow by stateWhen the weather that ends most of these seasons usually arrives.Leaving a car runningWhat the state says about a truck left running at a trailhead on a cold morning.

50 state wildlife agencies read 23 September 2026: every licence price, tag price, expiry rule, hunter education cutoff and draw species linked to the page it came from. Fees change by legislation and by rule, usually with effect from the start of a licence year, and the agency page linked beside each line is what governs on the day.